RE: "The Secret Word" - a possible answer

["Fritz A. Seiler" <faseiler@NMIA.COM>]

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Jerry Cohen wrote:



> Nick,

>     Your suggestion is good, but it won't work. Why?  Because:

> [1] It would be impossible to PROVE absence of harmful effects at

> low dose levels. You can't prove a negative!



Hi All,

        I have to take exception with Jerry's point # 1.  This is what the

Linear Mafia would like us to believe and respond to.  But that is not

the low-dose problem at all.  It is only true if the cause-effect function

is a more or less monotonic function of dose that rises up from zero

effect at zero dose to uniformly positive values.

        But that is NOT our problem.  What we have is a situation that

goes from zero excess effect at zero dose to significantly negative, i.e.

hormetic values and then via a zero effects point (ZEP) to positive risks.  The

hormetic values are clearly different from zero so there is no problem in

measuring them.

        Also, there are plenty of experimental data that show clearly negative

values, far below data that would be compatible with zero. Some refs. are:



1)    S. Kondo, Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation  (Medical Physics

Publishing, Madison, WI, 1993).

2)    Z. Jaworowski, "Radiation Risk and Ethics," Physics Today. 52, 24-29

(1999).

3)     T.D. Luckey, Radiation Hormesis. (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1991).

4)     E.J. Calabrese, L.A. Baldwin, and C.D. Holland. "Hormesis: A Highly

Generalizable and Reproducible Phenomenon With Important Implications for Risk

Assessment."  Risk Anal. 19, 261-281 (1999).

5)     J. Muckerheide, et al. Low Level Radiation Health Effects: Compiling the

Data (Radiation, Science, and Health, Inc., Box 843, Needham, MA 02194, March

1998).

6)    J. Muckerheide, et al. Compiling Data on Low Level Radiation Health

Effects: 2000 Supplement(Radiation, Science, and Health, Inc., Box 843, Needham,

MA 02194, March 2000).

7)     J.L. Alvarez and F.A. Seiler, "New Approaches to Low-Dose Risk

Modeling."  Technol. J. Franklin Inst.  333A, 33-51 (1996).

9)     B.L. Cohen, "Test of the Linear-No Threshold Theory of Radiation

Carcinogenesis for Inhaled Radon Decay Products." Health Phys. 68, 157-174

(1995).

10)     B.L. Cohen, "Validity of the Linear-No Threshold of Radiation

Carcinogenesis in the Low Dose Region." Technology, 6, 43-61 (1999).

11)     U.S. Department of Energy. Health Effects of Low Level Radiation in

Shipyard Workers. DOE Contract No. DE-AC02-79EV10095, Final Report, June 1991.

12)     E.J. Calabrese, L.A. Baldwin, and C.D. Holland. "Hormesis: A Highly

Generalizable and Reproducible Phenomenon With Important Implications for Risk

Assessment."  Risk Analysis, 19, 261-281 (1999).

13)     F.A. Seiler and J.L. Alvarez, "Is the 'Ecological Fallacy' a Fallacy?."

Hum. Ecol. Risk Assess. 6, 921-941 (2000).



So let's not play the Linear Mafia's game but use available experimental data.



Have a nice week,



Fritz

- --



 " The American Republic will endure until the day Congress

 discovers that it can bribe the Public with the Public's money."

                                       Alexis de Tocqueville

                                       Democracy in America



***************************



Fritz A. Seiler, Ph.D.

Sigma Five Consulting

P.O. Box 1709

Los Lunas, NM 87031, USA

Tel.    505-866-5193

Fax.    505-866-5197

e-mail: faseiler@nmia.com



***************************





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